Police find 31 sex videos involving ex-Indy high school wrestler

A former Indianapolis high school wrestling star accused of exposing at least five sexual partners to HIV is now suspected of taking as many as 31 sex videos of himself with different men.

Detective Donald Stepp of the St. Charles Police Department in Missouri said police found the videos in Michael L. Johnson’s computer earlier this month. He said the majority of the videos were taken within the past year after Johnson was diagnosed with HIV.

It is unclear how many sexual partners Johnson had after he was diagnosed, how many different partners were in the videos or whether the people in the videos knew they were being recorded.

The former student at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo., was arrested last October after a five-month investigation that began when one of the victims came forward. The man told police that he was diagnosed with HIV and gonorrhea about a month after he and Johnson had sex in Johnson’s dorm room on the Lindenwood campus, according to court documents. Four more people later came forward.

Stepp said police are in the process of contacting the men in the videos. Some of them were in more than one video. St. Charles police also have talked to three men from Indianapolis who said they had sexual contact with Johnson within the past year. Stepp said the men were referred to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department to file a report.

Johnson, who was diagnosed with HIV on Jan. 7, 2013, is facing five felonies: one count of recklessly infecting another with HIV, a Class A felony, and four counts of recklessly exposing someone to the risk of infection, a Class B felony.

In Missouri, a Class A felony is punishable by 10 years to lifetime imprisonment, and a Class B felony by five to 15 years in prison.

Johnson won the Indiana High School Athletic Association title in the 189-pound class in February 2010. The Indianapolis Star named him the 2010 Indianapolis Star Super Team Player the following month.

On Oct. 9, a day before he was arrested, Johnson posted on his Facebook page that he “m(e)ssed up big time” and he had learned to “never m(e)ss up again.”

Stepp said police are asking those who have had sexual contact with Johnson to come forward. Possible Indianapolis victims are asked to call IMPD at (317) 327-3811.